


The Moments When You're (Not) Alone

by Voidfish



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, Panic Attacks, five plus one fic, for vldseason3exchange, implied but not explicit klance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-03
Updated: 2017-09-03
Packaged: 2018-12-23 09:18:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,809
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11986827
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Voidfish/pseuds/Voidfish
Summary: Five times Lance comforted the team (and one time the team comforted him)





	The Moments When You're (Not) Alone

**Author's Note:**

> This is for tumblr user @kathycats for VLD Season 3 Exchange!
> 
> Warning for a panic attack in the +1, and Shiro freaks out in section 4 a little.

1.

Lance finds Pidge by accident.

He’s trying, strangely enough, to find Keith’s room, which is still an odd and foreign thought. Everything changes when he hears the sniffling outside of Pidge’s room.

There’s an awful voice in the back of his head that tells him to walk away, that he has his own demons to deal with and that Pidge can handle her’s on her own. 

There’s a horrible pause as he decides what to do, but there’s a louder sob and suddenly Lance is knocking frantically.

“Hey, Pidge,” Lance says, trying to feign nonchalance, “I need some, uh, math done?”

There’s a pause before the door opens just a crack. 

“Can’t you ask Hunk?” Pidge croaks out, voice thick with tears.

“Nope, Hunk’s busy. It’s up to you.”

Pidge laughs, a small sound that sends a rush of happiness through Lance. She pulls the door open. “Come in, try not to stink up the place,” she says, attempting and failing miserably to keep a straight face.

As Lance walks in he realizes that he has no idea what to do next. Honestly, he hadn’t expected to get this far.

Pidge raises an eyebrow at him, trying to quickly swipe a tear away. “So, where’s the math?”

Shit. Quick, gotta improvise.

“Must’ve left it outside. Oh well.”

Pidge stares at him, the moment growing, before busting into laughter.

“Lance, you’re my friend, and I appreciate you, but you’re a terrible liar.” Pidge says.

Lance puts a hand to his heart in fake shock. “Me? A terrible liar? I’ll have you know that I’m a fantastic liar! I could be lying about that, and you’d never know!”

Pidge snorts, fighting to keep a smile off her face and failing miserably. “Why are you actually here?”

Lance shrugs. “Just wanted to check on you. See how things are hanging.”

Pidge’s face darkens for a second. “You could hear me, couldn’t?”

Lance just nods, and Pidge sighs, flopping back onto her bed. Lance cautiously approaches her and sits beside her. There’s a moment of silence.

“I’m so much closer to finding Matt,” Pidge begins, voice uncharacteristically quiet, “but I just-I don’t know. Anything could be out there. He could be...He could be gone, and I-” Pidge cuts off her sentence to try to breathe, and Lance can’t help but intervene.

“We’re gonna find him.” Lance firmly says, pulling Pidge closer. She leans into him. 

“B-but what if I d-don’t?” Pidge sniffles out. Lance thinks on this for a minute.

“How about,” he starts, “we deal with that bridge if we get there. If he’s anything like you, he’s still fighting. He’s still out there.”

Pidge broke away from their hug, eyes shining brightly. “You really think so?”

Lance smiles. “Know so.”

 

2.

“Hey, Hunk, you doing okay?” Lance asks, watching his friend glide through the kitchen and wash dishes. He had volunteered to help clean up after dinner, but that just meant watching Hunk do the work and licking the spoons.

Hunk, who, despite the fact that dinner was over, was staring on baking something new.

“Yeah, I’m fine, I’m doing great-why wouldn’t I be?” Hunk rambles on, and Hunk is an incredible engineer and an absolute genius but that man cannot bluff to save his life.

“You’re stress cooking, my dude. Something tells me we’ve got enough food goo to last a deca-phoeb.” Lance mentions, as friendly as he can.

Hunk stops and takes a step back to join Lance. He puts a hand on his forehead. “I didn’t even realize I was doing that. Should I be worried about that?”

Lance smiles softly at his best friend. “Nah, man, I think you just need to take a break. What’s stressing you?”  
Hunk frowns. “Not sure. Maybe it’s the fact that Keith’s the leader now? Or maybe it’s the new villain so soon after we stopped the last one. Or what if Yellow doesn’t like me anymore. Or-”

“Hunk,” Lance places his hands inches from his friend’s shoulders. Hunk sees this, and nods, so Lance holds him by his shoulders. “It’s gonna be okay, man. Just take a deep breathe.”

“Right,” Hunk wheezes. “Breathing, I’m good at breathing, I breathe all the time-”

“Hunk,” Lance commands, “follow my count. In, two, three, four, out, two, three, four, in…”

They sit there for a while, breathing. 

“Thanks,” Hunk says when he’s started to relax. The two boys sit on the floor, Lance criss-cross apple sauce and Hunk with his knees tucked up to his chest. “There’s been a lot going on right now.”

“I’m always here for you, Hunk,” Lance says, squeezing his friend’s knee. “I’m here whenever you need me.”

 

3.

Of all the people to be hanging around the lions at this ungodly varga, Lance wasn’t expected to run into Allura.

She sat where he was heading-near the red lion. She looked exhausted, and Lance is reminded that she’s so young. It’s easy to forget, because of her demeanor, and her position, that Allura was still barely an adult. They were all so young, far too young for all the shit they went through.

Allura’s head snaps up as she hears his arrival.

“Oh, Lance,” she starts, her voice artificially peppy. “Can I help you with anything?”

“Nah, I’m just here to think,” Lance admits as he sits down next to her on the ground.

“I am, too,” Allura admits softly, and Lance just nods. They sit in silence for a minute.

“D’you wanna talk about it?” Lance asks, and Allura tenses for a moment before nodding.

“I’m just…” Allura starts, rapping her arms tighter around her knees, “I’m not sure what my father would think of me now.”

Lance frowns. “He’d be super proud of you, Princess. We all are. You’re doing a great job with Blue.”

Allura sighs. “I suppose. I just can’t shake the feeling.”

Lance doesn’t know anymore jokes to defuse the situation, so he decides to go for plan two: honesty.

“It’s gonna be hard,” he admits, “to get past the feeling something’s off. But if it weren’t meant to be, it wouldn’t be happening.”

Allura smiles at him, cocking her head slightly to the side. “I’m impressed, Lance, that was beautiful.”

And now, now is the perfect time for that charming, oh so clever Lance McClain humor.

“I mean, it’s not the only beautiful thing in the room-there’s also me.”

Allura covers her hands to her mouth and snorts, honestly snorts, and Lance feels honored to be sitting with her and seeing this side of her.

“Thank you,” Allura says, “for cheering me up.”

Lance smiles. “Anytime, Princess.”

 

4.

“Lance, can I talk to you for a minute?” Shiro asks, and Lance can’t help but feel his heart stop. Shit, what did he do this time?

“Yeah, of course,” he weakly responds, returning to where Shiro was standing. “Wassup?”

“I just want to say thank you. For taking care of Keith.”

Lance blinks rapidly, trying to understand. “Whatcha mean?”

Shiro frowns. “I know that I haven’t been-look, I haven’t been around for him. And thank you for taking care of him while I was gone.”

Lance couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Shiro, you’re acting like it was your fault you got captured.”

And Shiro, he just looks at the floor, refusing to look at Lance, refusing to refute the claim.

“Shiro,” Lance starts, voice barely held together, “you know this wasn’t your fault, right?”

“I should go,” Shiro says as he tries to leave, but Lance reaches out for him.

“Hey, wait-” 

As soon as Lance puts his hand on Shiro’s shoulder he knows that something is wrong.

Shiro stiffens, breath halting. Lance can barely blink before he’s being thrown over Shiro’s shoulder and onto the ground.

There’s a moment of shock before Shiro’s horrified face appears above him.

“I’m sorry,” Shiro pants, eyes wide, voice frail. “I don’t-I didn’t mean to-”

“Are you okay?” Lance pushes himself into sitting position.

Shiro barks out a humourless laugh. “I should be asking you that.”

Lance shrugs. “I got a bunch of sisters, I’m used to it.” Shiro quirks an eyebrow.

“I’m fine,” Shiro says. It’s a thin lie that they both see through. Shiro sighs. “I’ll be fine,” he tries. It’s closer to the truth, but even he doesn’t believe it.

“Do you want to talk about it,” Lance tries.

Shiro shakes his head. “I don’t want to burden you.”

Lance laughs. Shiro turns to him, confused. “Dude, you’re like my idol,” Lance explains. “You’re never bothering me. So if ya wanna spill, it beats training.”

Shiro, chuckling slightly, sits down next to Lance. “Ok,” he relents.”

 

5.

Keith Kogane is a lot of things. He’s a fighter, a rebel, a dropout, a hero, and a thief. He’s, for all intents and purposes, the current leader of Voltron.

And, currently, Keith Kogane is sick as a dog. Only he won’t admit it.

Lance sighs as he approaches Keith’s room, bowl of soup in hand. Hunk had asked him to deliver the meal, and surprisingly enough the rest of the team agreed, It was odd, the relationship between Keith and Lance-it was in the middle of some sort of transformation from enemies to something just slightly more powerful than friendship. Who knew where it could go after that.

Lance stops as he reaches Keith’s room, hesitant to continue. What if he was mad? Or what if he was happy to see him, what then? 

Lance starts to retreat when the door is flung over and there stands Keith.

The man looks horrible, bags under his dark and wistful eyes. He’s too pale, with sweat glistening across his forehead. His eyes are covered by a film of haze, a fever no doubt.

“What do you want?” Keith asks. Even his voice is rough. 

“Hey, man,” Lance starts cautiously. “You feeling hungry, dude?”

Keith narrows his eyes. “I’m fine.”

Lance rolls his eyes. “Look, Keith, just take the soup.”

Keith bites his lip before speaking, voice soft and embarrassed. “Can you bring it in? My hands are shaking pretty badly.”

Lance blinks. When he finally speaks, his voice matches Keith’s in compassion and pitch. “Yeah, of course.”

Lance walks into Keith’s room-it’s messy, clothes and blankets strewn all over.

“I think I might be sick,” Keith says, and Lance can’t help but snort.

“No shit, Sherlock,” Lance replies. Keith frowns, and Lance backtracks. “Sorry, I just-you need to get some rest man. It’ll get better if you take it easy.”

Keith looks panicked. “We have things to do. We have to search for Lotor, and we need to figure out what the Galra were doing with Shiro, and Pidge needs help finding her brother-”

“Hey,” Lance says, placing a hand out to slow Keith. “Let me work on that stuff. Hunk and Pidge can work on looking for Pidge’s brother, Allura and Coran will scan for Lotor’s ship, and I’ll talk to Shiro. By the time all of that’s done you should be feeling better and we’ll be able to get right back into it.”

Keith stands there, frozen, for a moment. And then he nods, a smile cracking through his stony facade. “Thanks, Lance.”

Lance can’t help but return the grin. “No problem, Keith.”

 

+1

Homesickness is a bitch. 

Lance, sitting buried under his blankets, can’t help but think back to his time at the Garrison and how difficult that was. The schedule was strict, and phones were confiscated for most of the day to make sure that the students were on their best behavior, but Lance still found a way to call his house every night, and someone would always answer, no matter how late it was. 

Lance wants to call home so badly right now.

Oh sure, he’s tried, but there’s something about being in another galaxy that makes cell service impossible.

And besides, what would he even say? “Hey, it’s Lance, I’m alive but I might die any day in the fight to dismantle a dictatorship, also I pilot a giant furry mecha,” wouldn’t work. There was nothing he could do to fix the situation. He had a responsibility to the team.

That didn’t stop it from hurting.

If he could just call his house, have one of his sisters pick up. Lily would listen intently as he described his teammates, always the one for people and for gossip.

Carmen would tease him about Keith and help him understand what the boy meant by certain things he said.

Lizzy would praise him, remind him that he’s doing a great job and that he’s doing difficult and important work.

And his Momma? She would listen to him about the situation would Blue, would comfort him, would remind him that he’s important, would tell some story of the time he was three and crawled out of his crib to get some cookies, reminding him how strong and resilient and just plain incredible he’s always been.

But there was no way to contact his family.

There’s a knock on the door, and Hunk speaks on the other end of it. “Hey, Lance? You ok in there?”

Lance frowns. Maybe he can just pretend that he’s not in here.

Another voice speaks up-Pidge. “We know you’re in there, Lance.”

Well, shit. “‘M napping,” Lance tries to force out. He shudders at the sound of his voice-it’s weak, high, and it wavers as he tries to lie. It tells on him, informs them that he’s crying.

“Lance, can you let us in,” Shiro says. He’s there, too? There’s dread in Lance’s stomach as he lumbers over to the door and opens it.

Pidge, Hunk, Allura, Shiro, and Keith are all there waiting for him, sympathy on their faces.

“Hey guys, wassup-” Lance is interrupted by a sob, and all facade is dropped. He huddles closer to the edge of the door, leaning against anything, as he tries to regain his breath.

Hunk moves forward, eyes alert with worry. “Hug?” Lance nods, and he’s pulled into Hunk, who, per usual, gives the best hugs. Hunk rubs Lance’s back, soft circles that make Lance feel safer.

“It’s been a couple of vargas since anyone has seen you, and we were just making sure you were alright,” Allura explains, moving forward. “We’re here for you, Lance.”

Lance tries to say something clever, something that gets them all to go away, but all that comes out is a sob.

Pidge moves forward. “Do you wanna talk about it?”

Lance, not trusting words, just nods. 

The group looks at each other. Shiro speaks up. “I think all of us would be too much. Who would you like to talk to, Lance?”

Before Lance can respond Keith speaks up.

“I’ll do,” Keith says. The others look at him, than Lance, than back and forth before Lance nods and opens the door to let Keith in. The others rub wave at Lance or pat him on the shoulder as they turn to leave.

As soon as Lance walks into the room he’s wracked with another bout of sobs. Keith panics, eyes wide and unsure, before reaching out and pulling Lance closer to him. 

“I m-miss home,” Lance squeaks out, and Keith nods.

“I’m sorry,” he says.

“I w-wanna c-call, I wanna call my f-family,” Lance chokes out, and Keith breaks their hug to look him in the eye. 

“Can you breathe with me,” Keith asks, and Lance nods. Keith takes Lance through a series of meditation-like instructions, and twenty minutes later Lance has stopped shaking. He looks exhausted.

“Sorry about that,” Lance mutters, and Keith shakes his head.

“No need to apologize. It happens to all of us.”

Lance frowns. “Yeah, but I’m the person everyone goes to when this happens.”

Keith blinks. “Lance,” he starts, “you don’t have to always focus on the group. Someone very smart once told me that rest was important.”

Lance crinkles his nose. “Did I say that?”

Keith smiles. “Shiro did, but you repeated him later.”

Lance laughs, which turns into a yawn.

Keith frowns. “You should take a nap. You’re probably exhausted.”

Lance nods. “You’re right about that, buddy,” he says as he lies down on his bed, positioning the blankets to smother him.

He hears a smile in Keith’s voice. “Night, Lance.”

***

When Lance wakes up, he notices two things-one, it’s much later than when he went to bed, and two, his phone is sitting on his bedside table with a note on it.

“Pidge and Hunk are working on a prototype for you to call home. Give it a try.”

Heart racing, Lance picks up the phone. Tears are in his eyes, because no matter what happens next he knows that he has two families.

He dials the phone.

“Hello,” a voice on the other end replies.

Lance can’t hold back his tears. “Momma!”


End file.
